Column: Vermont’s rural schools need change, and support

By CHERYL CHARLES

Vermonters spoke loud and clear this Town Meeting Day: they support their public schools. With over 90% of school budget proposals winning voter approval and budgets passing in at least 101 districts, the message is undeniable — Vermont communities value their schools and want to see them strengthened, not dismantled.

Column: A GOP senator’s thoughts on Vermont school reform

By SCOTT BECK

A considerable amount of attention and work this legislative session has been devoted to Vermont’s PreK-12 public education system and how it is funded. This is important work — 30% of Vermont state spending is devoted to our most precious resource, 83,000 children.

A Yankee Notebook: Visiting our neighbors to the north, amid strife

By WILLEM LANGE

The week started off at midnight Friday morning with a full lunar eclipse. A thick, rain-filled warm front followed right behind, and the snow began receding from my yard. Sugarmakers began posting steam-filled photographs of their operations, which will be followed shortly by more photos of two-wheel-drive cars mired up to their axles on country roads. A cardinal sang lustily from a tree down in the brook bed below my house. And best of all, it’s spring break for universities, so I’ve got company.

Forum for March 19, 2025: An EPA stalwart

Ed Hathaway died March 7, 2025, after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Ed was the lead EPA engineer on the cleanup of the Elizabeth Mine and Ely Mine Superfund hazardous waste sites.

Forum for March 18, 2025: Film shows Palestinian suffering

For those who care about American foreign policy, please go see the Academy Award-winning documentary, “No Other Land,” now at the Nugget in Hanover. The film is a sensitive and stark portrayal of the destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israeli government, the prison-like conditions of the Palestinian occupation and the despair of families who see no hope for the future of their children.

Forum for March 15, 2025: Claremont dump proposal

Thank you to the hundreds of citizens who came to the Claremont Opera House last week to oppose a dangerous project an out-of-state company wants to bring to Claremont Junction, near schools, residential neighborhoods and the Amtrak station. Between now and Thursday, March 27, the public can send messages urging the NH Department of Environmental Services to reject Acuity’s application to truck toxic construction and demolition waste into the city on a daily basis.

Editorial: NH police put mission aside to pursue immigrants

Gov. Kelly Ayotte is applauding the application by New Hampshire State Police to take on immigration enforcement duties for the Trump administration. We fear that this will not be a one-act play and that it will end in tragedy.

Column: Lebanon trades one annoyance for another

By MAGGIE CASSIDY

What was that awful sound?

Column: There’s no law that says ‘speak English’

By ROBERTO REY AGUDO

English still is not the official language of the United States. On March 1, President Trump issued EO 14223, Designating English as the Official Language of the Unites States. But executive orders are not royal decrees. The Constitution and the laws of the United States do not, in fact, vest the president with any authority to make English the official language. That would require a law.

Forum for March 14, 2025: ‘Mafia Don’

Regarding the March 4 editorial from the Washington Post “Mafia Don shakes down Ukraine’s president,” I would add to “Trump should be as tough on Putin as he is on Zelensky,” yes, and at least as tough on Netanyahu.

Forum for March 13, 2025: Stand up for science

My mother and her younger sister grew up on what is now Thompson Road in Hanover Center. In the early 1930s, both of them survived polio although the effects of this disease lasted throughout their lives. Thankfully, I received the Salk vaccine in the late l950s. The worries about catching polio and being put into an iron lung that haunted my early childhood went away. I feel sympathy for children today who are living in fear of catching some preventable disease.

A Yankee Notebook: An Alaskan adventure, with food

By WILLEM LANGE

The year 1985 has often moved me to invoke Shakespeare: “So fair and foul a year I have not seen.” But let’s focus on just the fair for the next few minutes.

Forum for March 12, 2025: SB2 in Enfield

I have heard opponents of adopting SB2 in Enfield state that townspeople need to better prioritize Town Meeting, and make whatever arrangements necessary in order to attend. The vote on moving to SB2 is on Saturday, March 15. I believe that in our modern world, we need to recognize that people’s reasons for not attending a Town Meeting often have nothing to do with apathy about town politics, but can range from employment obligations to physical limitations to mental health.

Forum for March 11, 2025: Vermont school budgets

Most Vermont School budgets “sailed through” this year largely due to a one-time influx of money to keep tax rates fairly stable while the governor and Legislature work out how to make meaningful reform. Reform that is intended to “bend the curve” on unsustainable education spending (“School budgets sail through”; March 7).

Forum for March 10 , 2025: Welcoming immigrants

As a former faculty member at Babson College (I’m now retired), I have had the pleasure of teaching and mentoring a great many students from immigrant families. These students are grateful for the opportunities the US education system makes available to them. They take these opportunities seriously and they work hard. In fact, they often work harder than their US-born classmates. They understand that this is a land of opportunity, not a land of easy success. They know that to get where they want to be they will have to learn the language, get the grades, get internships, excel in the workplace and show their colleagues, professors and managers what they can do.

Editorial: If politicians want respect they’d better earn it

Before Vice President JD Vance arrived in Vermont for a ski trip with his family at Sugarbush Resort last weekend, Gov. Phil Scott issued a statement that read in part, “I hope Vermonters remember the vice president is here on a family trip with his young children and, while we may not always agree, we should be respectful. Please join me in welcoming them to Vermont.”

Column: How states can lead in healing the health care system

By ELLIOTT S. FISHER and ALENA BERUBE

Column: Can the Democrats help rebuild democracy?

By NARAIN BATRA

Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) in a recent conversation at Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center for Public Policy with Russell Muirhead, a government professor at Dartmouth, spoke with refreshing candor that the Democratic Party is in peril. It needs a serious re-evaluation of its deplorable electoral performance despite facing an opponent perceived as deeply flawed.

Forum for March 8, 2025: Losing DEIB programs

Recent executive orders dismantling DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) programs have reverberated across government, corporate America, and higher education. While framed as a return to meritocracy, this rollback risks undermining civil rights protections and limiting opportunities for marginalized groups. DEIB initiatives have been crucial in expanding workplace access, broadening education opportunities, and fostering inclusive environments that drive innovation and progress.

Forum for March 7, 2025: Reelect Wilkie

As a member of Lebanon’s Energy Advisory Committee, I’ve had a somewhat close-up view of Devin Wilkie serving on the City Council for the past four years. (These views are my own, not on behalf of the committee.) I think we couldn’t ask for a better councilor than Wilkie. I urge my fellow voters in Lebanon Ward 2 to re-elect him to the City Council.